Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

The Red Menace Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's Dennis when you really need him?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 1, 2013

The term “Soviet propaganda” used to be bandied about with a fair amount of frequency, as did the perhaps slightly more generalist epithet “Communist propaganda”, but one need only to watch a few minutes of The Red Menace to realize that propaganda was not limited to countries other than our own. Looking back on some of the more hyperbolic cinematic “responses” to the perceived Communist threat of the late forties and early fifties, films like this one and the recent Olive Films release of My Son John, one is almost forced to react as if one were watching an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, where snarky comments shouted at the screen provide at least as much, and probably more, entertainment value than the actual on screen happenings. The Red Menace seems to have been producer Herbert J Yates’ attempt to drag the long derided Republic Studios out of its penchant for forgettable westerns into a more contemporary, and supposedly earth shatteringly relevant, milieu, but the results are melodramatic and actually unintentionally comical quite a bit of the time. If the Communists depicted in The Red Menace are all we have to fear, Capitalism and the good old American Way are in good shape—as villains go, the bad guys in this film are a rather buffoonish bunch, given to a sort of “speechifyin’” whose only real threat is that it might put listeners to sleep (which of course may be their evil plan—after all, if a country is asleep, it’s easier to invade). It would be easy to pass all of this off as a relic of a bygone age, but sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Rather recently in fact both a former United States Congressman as well as a current United States Senator have made headlines for unironically claiming there were “card carrying Communists” (or similar verbiage) in the highest echelons of the government, and of course it’s been a right leaning trope to accuse Barack Obama himself of being at the very least a so-called “socialist”, so it may be instructive to view The Red Menace as a film perhaps more revelatory of a certain streak in American politics (reactionary or otherwise) than might be apparent at first (withering) glance.

The unintended hilarity may begin for some during the credits sequence, when eagle eyed viewers will catch the fact that a Los Angeles City Councilman has been selected to be the film’s portentous narrator. Now, there are two reasons that may strike some as funny. First of all, the fact that the film’s staff could only find a relatively low level city official to give the imprimatur of “authority” is at least a little humorous. But some of my more conservative friends might be thinking, “Oh, great! Get an official from one of the most liberal, leftist cities in the United States to be your spokesman for truth, justice and the American Way. Right!”

The Red Menace is told in flashback, as we meet Bill Jones (Robert Rockwell) and Nina Petrovka (Hanne Axman) on the run from some unseen threat. Our very serious narrator lets us gaze back on what has led the pair to this desperate situation. It turns out Jones is a returning G.I. who feels he’s been shafted by shady real estate salesmen who have taken advantage of Jones’ ability to utilize the G.I. Bill to build his “dream house”. When Jones shows up to literally fight City Hall (to no avail, of course), there’s a well planted Commie waiting there to take Bill under his wing and indoctrinate him in the way of Marx and Lenin. That includes taking Bill to a nearby Commie bar (yes, in this film, there are such things) and introducing him to intellectual floozy (yes, in this film, there are such things) Molly O’Flaherty (Barbra Fuller). Also in the bar is the glowering Yvonne Kraus (Betty Lou Gerson), who makes no secret that she wants that hunka hunka burnin’ love Bill Jones for herself.

The evil Commies are ginning up foment with a whole cadre of returning G.I.’s, and Bill is front and center handing out leaflets when he suddenly realizes there’s someone even more attractive than Molly in the Party, a former “real” Communist (as in Soviet), Nina Petrovka. Meanwhile, the local Party Committee Chairman, the wonderfully named Mr. Partridge (Lester Luther) has been keeping busy either turning errant members into the State Department so that they can be deported or, failing that ruse, actually killing them and then demanding in the local Commie newspaper (yes, there are such things in this film) that an investigation be launched. Partridge also has one of the most superbly hilarious lines in the film, when he hears about the new “prospect” of Jones and casually says, “He’ll figure out he’s not joining a tea party”.

The Red Menace is so shatteringly silly that a “serious” critical analysis is not only pointless, it’s absolutely unnecessary. If the Commies’ main goal is to recruit new members and take over America, one might assume that getting them deported and/or murdered might not be a really smart strategy, though of course the implication is that these tactics will keep other “fellow travelers” from setting out on their own Capitalist journey. The film is full to the brim with hilarious dialogue and little character bits (Gerson has some howlers as she verbally takes down various characters). And one has to wonder how long it took producer Yates to find a lead actor with the surname of Rockwell, subliminally linking the film to that most iconic portrayer of the homier aspects of American life.

The Red Menace Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Red Menace is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This was an ultra low budget film and it looks it. The elements here are in variable shape. The opening sequence, with Bill and Nina in the car, suffers from some damage running down the right side of the frame (you can just barely make it out in the first screenshot accompanying this review), but after that things improve markedly, with only occasional dots, specks and minor blemishes showing up from time to time. Contrast is weirdly variable, however. One scene between Molly and her mother has a master with blown out contrast, but every time coverage changes to a close-up of one of the characters, things once again improve markedly. Overall, this is an above average looking presentation that offers sufficient fine detail in close-ups, as well as a decent amount of clarity and sharpness. That said, things never really ever pop brilliantly in this presentation, most of which can probably be tied directly to the source elements.

The Red Menace Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Red Menace features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix that ably supports this film's very modest sonic ambitions. The narration and dialogue are all cleanly presented, though there are a couple of very minor pops that show up on occasion. The film's amusing score (which starts out with a Volga Boatman sounding male chorus and ends with a rousing "My Country 'Tis of Thee", replete with stock footage of the Statue of Liberty) also sounds decently clear. There's an expected boxy sound to a lot of this track, with some clipping on the high end, but overall things are rather spry, considering the low budget and age of this feature.

The Red Menace Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements of any kind are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

The Red Menace Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Red Menace is a stinker, but that doesn't mean it's not hugely enjoyable. In fact, there were several moments in this film that had me laughing harder than any erstwhile contemporary "comedy" I've seen in the past several months. This probably wasn't even an accurate representation of the hysteria sweeping the United States when the film was made, and is probably more appropriately seen as Republic's desperate attempts to cash in on a "fad" (so to speak) and achieve some level of respectability. Both gambits fail miserably here, which perhaps only adds to this film's peculiar allure. For those with a certain jaded sense of humor, The Red Menace is unmissable, even if it's often unwatchable. This Blu- ray offers decent video and audio, hampered by source elements that appear not to have been in the best shape to begin with.